Pages

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Family Vacation | Walt Disney World

It was our first trip with our children to WDW. When we visited Disneyland in California

a couple years ago we had the greatest time. We decided this was the year to visit Disney World.

We purposely waited until we were out of the nap stage, so we could more fully enjoy the parks.

I know looking at family vacation pictures isn't all that exciting for anyone outside of our family,

but this one is for my memory books! Thanks for indulging me!! ;)

My absolute favorite day was when we went to the Very Merry Christmas Party
at the Magic Kingdom. It was a "magical" afternoon and evening full of spectacular weather, shorter lines, lots of character encounters, Christmas music, parades, and snow!! {of the artificial variety!}

If you are EVER there during the Christmas season, I highly recommend
buying the special event ticket. We stayed till 11:00 PM, which is late for
both my boys, but it was absolutely worth it!!

The new Fantasyland expansion had just opened a few days before we arrived.
We spent a lot of time there, including a dinner at the Beast's "Be Our Guest" Castle.

Something I didn't realize was the need for reservations at ANY sit down restaurant in the parks and at the resorts. Book early! We got this reservation out of sheer luck.

Charlie was absolutely entranced by every character. He was especially fixated on seeing Mickey, Donald Duck and a Princess. He got his wish in a big way!!

My favorite moment of the trip was watching the boys in a skit with Belle.

Andrew was Maurice {her father} and Charlie played the part of The Beast.

We live literally 10 minutes from Disney! Glad you guys had an awesome time, and were able to visit Celebration! Love that place! Were you guys there for the tree lighting and Santa's arrival? We were there for it, it was crazy busy for the event and there was snow... however you guys would laugh at our snow, it's bubble suds! lol! My husband works at Universal as well, we LOVE the spider man ride!!! Too bad we couldn't have met up! Talk with you later!!

I'm so glad that you posted your photos & experiences. We are going in January (which will be a big surprise for our 7 year old daughter) & I appreciate your insights! I'm especially glad to hear that the pools are heated! Also, anything special that we should do in the Boardwalk area? We are staying at that resort & want to take full advantage of it!

You'll love it! I stayed at the yacht club years ago and loved it. It's right across from the Boardwalk. Definetly rent the family bike! There are lots of places to eat and it's especially pretty at night. We did not stay on Disney property this time but there are all sorts of perks and activities they can tell you about. I bet January will be less crowded!!

I love that you posted this! We have not yet taken our 2 boys and are planning to try and do it a year from now... they will be 8 and 5. I've worried that they'll miss some of the magic by going when they are older and I want them to get there before all they want to do are the thrill rides. I love that you let your family dictate the pace and didn't try to hit everything. That's the way I want to do it but NOT the way so many of my friends have done it.

I loved our trips there with our daughters. I didn't realize how much they loved it until my college junior announced that WDW is "my best vacation memories ever". We always tried to keep an appropriate pace with pool time, etc each day.

I cannot believe you got to eat (especially at Be Our Guest!) without a reservation! I always make all mine 180 days ahead of time (nerd alert). I was just there in October but you are making me miss it!

I loved these pics and tips from your trip. Stella has been begging to go and I wanted to wait until she could really appreciate it, remember it, and not be a crankster w/o a nap. I like the idea of going with all the Christmas decor up. Makes an already magical place even more so! Looks like ya'll had a really amazing time!